The present invention relates generally to apparatus for directing conditioned air in a desired direction and, more particularly, to an apparatus for directing air along a predetermined path toward equipment, such as textile spinning machines.
As set forth in greater detail in Hartness U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,942, which is incorporated herein by reference, it is important in many yarn processing operations that the humidity and the temperature of the ambient air be carefully controlled to improve the quality of the yarn being processed and to reduce the tendency of the yarn to break in subsequent processing operations, such as knitting and weaving operations.
Briefly summarized, the aforesaid Hartness patent discloses an improved arrangement for distributing conditioned air to a spinning machine along a predetermined flow path that includes a duct or conduit positioned between adjacent rotating rotors of an open end spinning machine, and such duct is formed with a plurality of openings arranged to cause the conditioned air exiting from the duct to flow first in a generally horizontal direction toward the spin boxes of the open end spinning machine, and with a portion of the conditioned air being directed to flow across the yarn being processed.
While the duct arrangement disclosed in the Hartness patent offers a more desirable flow of the conditioned air as compared with other prior arrangements, particularly in terms of cooling the rotors of open end spinning machines, in some applications the energy of the conditioned air which is directed across the sliver being fed to the rotor was sufficient to cause some damage to the sliver, usually in the form of fuzzing.
The present invention provides an air conditioning apparatus which directs the conditioned air in a particular, controlled flow path which cools the spinning machines without damaging the sliver being fed to the machine.